Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, has acknowledged that providing applications and other services to business customers will be an important strategy for maintaining growth of the company.

Speaking at a press event in Paris on Tuesday, Schmidt responded to a question on how Google intends to maintain its phenomenal growth rates when the stream of ad revenues from old media to new media, which has sustained the company so far, begins to plateau. "Small businesses and universities are likely to become a significant business for Google as [they] use our leverage in terms of sales and infrastructure," he said.